Leyla Ali

Ethiopian tech innovator creating solar-powered education hubs in off-grid regions

Leyla Ali (b.1990) is an Ethiopian engineer whose company SolarLearn has transformed education access in rural Africa. After witnessing her village's lack of electricity while studying at Addis Ababa University, she developed portable solar classroom units in 2016. These self-contained units include solar panels, projectors, and offline educational software, providing schools in areas without grid electricity. By 2021, 120 units served 8,000 students across Ethiopia, Kenya, and Uganda. Her design won the 2018 Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation and secured $500k in seed funding. Leyla's modular system allows communities to customize content through a crowdsourced platform where teachers from 15 countries contribute lesson plans. A partnership with UNICEF expanded the program to refugee camps, including Rohingyas in Bangladesh. Her blog posts document challenges like battery theft and gender disparities, proposing solutions like community guardianship systems. A 2020 study by the African Development Bank showed students using her facilities improved literacy rates by 65%. Leyla's current focus is developing AI-powered tutors that work offline, demonstrated in a pilot with 10 schools showing 30% faster math learning. She was named one of MIT's 35 Innovators Under 35 in 2022 for her 'hybrid tech approach that respects local realities'.